Forced Love
by Seselian
Summary: Hermione and Draco are forced to go to the Yule ball together, for reasons of extreme plot convenience. Back from the dead after a four year rest!
1. Chapter 1

OK, I thin it worked this time... Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, I'm not stealing it... The only thing that's mine is the plot, and a lot of it is hers, too. Anyways, just read it!   
  
  
Chapter 1   
  
  
Draco stared out into space. He was thinking about the Yule Ball. He'd be taking Pansy, no doubt. It was rather hard to get out of taking Pansy places. He sneaked a look up the Slytherin table. No, she still looked the same. Huge, with dirty blonde hair and a big nose. He sighed.   
"What?" asked Goyle, an amused look on his face. "So you're starting to thing Pansy's ugly now?"   
Actually, Draco had always found pansy ugly, but people who said things like that found themselves lying in a hallway with several broken bones.   
Goyle read on his face. "Then take the mudblood," he said, grinning.   
Draco stared at him, appalled. "Granger! You've got to be kidding! She's almost as ugly as Pansy!"   
Goyle grinned as Pansy shrieked in outrage. She must have heard them. Draco could feel his bones beginning to crack...   
  
***   
  
Hermione couldn't believe what was happening. What was she doing in Dumbledore's office? And with Draco Malfoy of all people.   
Draco was sitting in a gold chair as far from her as possible. His arm was in a cast, he had a black eye, and limped when he walked. No one knew what had happened, and other than snapping at anyone who brought it up, Draco wasn't saying anything about it.   
"Erm..." coughed Professor McGonagall. "I am sure you are both wondering why you are here. She paused, but neither Draco or Hermione said anything, so she continued, "It has come to my attention that you are the only sixth years with no one that you are going to the Yule Ball with. As it is necessary that you both go with someone, we have decided that you two will go together."   
Both Hermione and Draco stared at each other in horror.   
"You want me to go to the ball with that mublood?" Draco said in horror.   
"Malfoy!" scolded the professor. "Control your language!"   
"But-Professor," asked Hermione, "do we have to take someone?"   
McGonagall's voice was icy. "You two will go together. I do not want to hear anything further! You may go."   
Hermione and Draco left, shooting glares at each other and Professor McGonagall.   
  
  
How could this happen to me? Hermione was thinking as she ducked into the Gryffindor common room.   
"So what did McGonnagall want?" asked Harry, glancing up from his Transfiguration homework.   
"I have to go to the ball with Malfoy," Hermione replied bleakly.   
"You're kidding," exclaimed Ron, appearing behind Harry.   
"Nope."   
"You want to go to the ball with me?" Ron asked. "I'm sure Lavender could find someone to go with."   
"You are not dumping Lavender, Ron," said Hermione firmly. "I'll survive... Probably."   
  
  
Draco was dreading going back to his common room. Maybe they'd all be asleep. But as he opened the door, he realized he had had no such luck. Almost everyone was up, and they were all staring at him.   
"Well," said Pansy loudly after a pause. "What did she want?"   
"Nothing," mumbled Draco.   
A seventh year took a small vial from his robes. "Truth potion, Malfoy."   
"I have to go to the ball with Granger," muttered Draco.   
"Hah!" Pansy shouted. "Malfoy and the mudblood! It's perfect! The eyese, the hair, height..."   
Draco stomped off to his dorm, laughter echoing behind him.   
  
REVEIW. That's why I write. If you want me to write REVIEW!!! Flames are fine... At least I won't freeze to death... 


	2. Chapter 2

2nd Chapter! Hope you like it! I don't, really, but thats OK, you might. READ. And Review afterward, too. JK Rowling Owns the setting, characters, part of the plot, blah, blah, blah. I didn't steal it, so nobody sue me. OK? ..... OK. Here's the story.   
  
CHAPTER 2  
  
The Yule ball was in three days. Draco glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall by his bed. Someone had drawn a heart on December 25. He rolled over and ripped the calendar down, muttering to himself. The day wasn't going very well. If only he could strangle Pansy or do something equally satisfying to her, his day would be much better. He could try to find a wart potion or something else disgusting, but the idea of going to the library and meeting up with the mudblood stopped him.  
  
Maybe he could find something in his own books? He looked over at them, a three foot high pile of dusty pages on things like How to Levitate a Beetle. Lot of good that would do him. He groaned and sat up. Maybe he should go to the library. Granger wouldn't necessarily be there... she couldn't spend all of her time in the library, could she?   
  
Pansy's laugh reached his ears. She and her friends must be back from Hogsmeade. His mind was made up. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood, trying to think of a way to avoid having Pansy see him as he snuck through the common room. He didn't particularly approve of sneaking, but he was good at it, and in this case....  
  
Half an hour later, Draco finally reached the library. It had taken him half an hour because his sneaking hadn't gone very well, and he'd had to listen to Pansy for twenty minutes while her friends blocked the door. By the time he'd made it out of there, he could care less whether Granger was at the library. All he wanted was a very unpleasant curse.  
  
Granger wasn't there, unless she was hidden behind one of the tall shelves of books. Draco breathed a sigh of relief as he glanced around. Where could you find curses? He tried to avoid libraries as a rule- big places with lots of dusty books that set off allergies he didn't have- and he had no clue where to find anything. Feeling the eyes of Madame Pince on him, he decided he'd better at least look like he was doing something. Looking around, he saw a sign that said CURSES. He walked over and picked up a leather bound book proclaiming 101 Easy Curses! It sounded a bit corny, like something you'd pick up in a junky little wizard shop in Diagon Alley- or something you'd find in Knockturn Alley, cursed, for other witches and wizards to find. Draco grinned a second- he had opened a cursed book of his father's once, and spent a year with his nose literally in it. His father believed in harsh punishment.  
  
He was just reading about How to make your enemy's hair fall out and deciding whether it was a bad enough punishment for Pansy when the book was snatched out of his hands.  
  
"So..." said Madame Pince, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the cover. "We're reading about curses, are we? The headmaster would be pleased to know, I'm sure..."  
  
Draco scowled. "I was just bored..." he drawled. Usually he was a fairly good liar, but even in his own ears, the comment sounded pitiful.   
  
Madame Pince grinned nastily. ":You are a fifth year?"  
  
"Sixth," muttered Draco sullenly, knowing what she was getting at.  
  
"Ah. Sixth. That's even better. So. You've been at Hogwarts for six years?" she said, pausing, then, not even waiting for him to answer, continued, "Is it just me, or have I seen you... maybe.... Once? Twice? Are you just exceptionally bored today?"  
  
Draco was trying to come up with a comment and not thinking of one when she spoke again. "I think you had better leave before the headmaster is told."  
  
Draco sighed, and left. However, instead of going toward his common room, he headed toward the Gryiffindor common room. Granger would probably know a nice, horrid curse, and he was desperate. All he was going to do was ask for a book, and he might as well start being civil to her before the Yule ball- afterward, he could care less, but the last thing he needed was for Him and Hermione to be arguing all night, and have Pansy talking about 'love spats' for the rest of their time at Hogwarts.   
  
He put a sneer on his face (he'd never be too civil to the mudblood) and waited outside the portrait hole for someone to let him in.  
  
I don't really like this chapter. I think Draco is getting too nice. what about you?!!! REVIEW! Thank you everyone for the reviews, and I'll try not to make it fluffy. I don't think I could make it fluffy if I wanted to, but then, I've never tried. 


	3. Chapter 3

I'm not JK Rowling. I think you'll have geussed that by the time you read this, but Oh Well.  
Just read it.  
  
CHAPTER 3  
  
Hermione was sitting in an armchair trying to do her Astronomy homework. Her head hurt. Lavender and Paravati had been talking about the Yule Ball all day. Snatches of their conversation drifted over from their huddle in the far corner. "Oh, he's.... really?..... I can't wait!"  
  
She rolled her eyes. Lavender was going with Seamus, but Paravati wasn't telling who she was going with. She expected everyone to be hanging on her every word trying to find out who the mystery person was. She was sick of Paravati. And Lavender, too, for that matter. Closing her astronomy book with a snap, she got up and walked over to the portrait hole, not really sure where she wanted to go.   
  
She was still thinking about it as she left, almost running into Draco Malfoy.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised, and rather crabby.   
  
"Very hospitable the mudb- Granger- is today," Draco sneered. He wasn't going to call her Hermione, curse or not.  
  
Hermione glared at him a second, then tried again. "What do you want?"  
  
Draco grinned lazily, and then finally told her. "A curse."  
  
"Try the library," Hermione sneered.  
  
"I did. Have you ever tried to look for something with Madame Pince breathing down you neck? I was hoping... I decided I might as well talk to you at least once before Christmas. Do you have any curses I can use?"  
  
Hermione raised her eyebrows at him. "A curse? Who for?"  
  
"Pansy."  
  
"Curses aren't exactly my specialty, you know." Hermione told him. "And what makes you think I'd help you, even if I could?"  
  
Hermione really was curious about this. Why in the world was Malfoy being nice all of the sudden? It wasn't exactly like him. But she really had nothing better to do.  
  
"All right," she told him. "Wait."  
  
She ran back into the common room, whispering the password so Draco wouldn't hear. Harry and Ron looked up.   
  
"Back a bit early?" Ron asked.  
  
"Forgot a book," Hermione answered. She wasn't about to tell either of them that she was helping Draco Malfoy.   
  
"Took you a while to figure that out," Ron yelled at her back as she disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dorms.  
  
Hermione looked around the room as she entered the 6th year dorm. Curses.... She walked over to the bookshelf by her four poster bed, which was packed with rather dusty leather bound books. She pulled out Easy Curses, Olde Curses, A Wizard's Guide to Pranks and More Serious Curses, and her Defense against the Dark Arts books, since they sometimes told how to do the curses you were defending yourself against.   
  
She walked back through the common room, a bit bent under her load of books.   
  
"Forgot more than one book, I see," Ron said as she climbed back out of the portrait hole.   
  
Draco raised his eyebrows as she dumped the pile of books at his feet. "Went a bit overboard, do you think?"  
  
Hermione glared at him. "Do you want me to help you or not?"  
  
"No, no, sorry," Draco said quickly. "Is there someplace we can go to look at these?"  
  
"Er..." Hermione said, trying to think of somewhere.  
  
"I know," said Draco suddenly. "Come on."  
  
Hermione followed him as he went down hallways, and turned around corner after corner until her head started spinning. Finally they stopped at a door that led to a long winding staircase.   
  
"You might want to take a breather," Draco told her. "It's a long way up."  
  
"Where are you taking me, anyway?" Hermione asked.  
  
Draco shrugged. "Just come with me."  
  
You are the most idiotic person, Hermione Granger, Hermione was telling herself as she followed him up the stairs. Why are you helping one of your worst enemies, anyway? And why is he being nice? Where in the world is he taking me, anyway?  
  
Her questions were answered as they emerged into a dusty tower room.  
  
They left footprints in the inch of dust, and cobwebs brushed her face. Draco whispered the Lumos spell, changing the previously dark room into a round stone chamber. It looked as though it hadn't been used in years- there weren't any footprints other than their own in the dust, and the three gothic windows where practically covered in cobwebs.  
  
Draco looked slightly embarrassed. "It... Hasn't been used in a while," he told her  
  
"What is it?" Hermione asked.  
  
"The old astronomy tower. It hasn't been used since the Ministry built the new one, with the money they should have used on making A Dark Arts class." You could hear the sneer in his voice.  
  
Hermione winced. He had been being so nice! "Oh." She said. She stood there for a second and then opened one of her books.  
  
OK. So its not that exciting.. Review any way. Maybe I'll think of an actual plot. More amazing things have happened. 


	4. Chapter 4

Right. So I was wandering through my old account (my new one is eidechse, if anyone wants to read what I've got up there, but more than likely, if you're reading this, you wouldn't) and anyway, I saw that I had 66 reviews for only 3 chapters! And, being the review whore that I am, this caught my attention, and I stared reading, and welllll…. I've decided to update! Because, y'know, four or five years isn't THAT long.

CHAPTER 4

"Well, there's a curse here to turn her toenails into frogs," Hermione said, half an hour later. She paused, apparently thinking about what she'd just said. "Why in the world would anyone want a curse that turned a toenail into a _frog?"_

They were sitting on the floor in the dust, surrounded by huge books. Hermione had rigged up a spell to suspend her wand in midair and then whispered _lumos, _ filling the room with a dim orange light. Every so often, she'd pause to say the spell again, and the light would flare brightly for a few minutes before dimming again. Currently, it was in a dim stage, and Malfoy was holding one of the books only a few inches from his nose in an attempt to read it.

"There's one in _Easy Curses Suitable for Siblings, Enemies, and In-Laws_ that will turn hair into porridge." Draco told her, moving the book away from his face so that he could turn the page without giving his nose a papercut.

"_Porridge?"_

"Umhm."

"Who likes porridge?"

"I think that's probably part of the point."

"Oh." She pulled the book she was reading closer, until it bumped her nose. "Oh, for heaven's sake! _Lumos!"_

A blast of white light exploded and instantly faded, leaving the two with their hands clapped over their eyes in pain.

"Tone that down a little, can't you, Granger?"

"Well, obviously I didn't _mean_ to, _Malfoy_, and if you're so great, then why don't you do it yourself?"

"_Lumos!"_ Malfoy hissed, and his wand tip lit with a bright but not blinding light. He smirked at her and opened _50 Ways to Curse Your Ex-lover._

"Hmph." She disappeared behind a book, obviously too flustered to actually read because she didn't notice that it was upside down. Malfoy peeked over the top of his own book and noticed, but, with a strong force of will, decided not to say anything. He needed a curse and he needed one now. Not that the mudblood would be much help while she was puzzling over the new language of upside down hsilgnE.

"You could turn her hair to snakes," Hermione suggested fifteen minutes later.

"No, that's no good," Draco sighed. "Pansy _likes _snakes."

"Oh."

"I could turn her hair _green, _though."

"Wouldn't she like that, too?"

"Probably."

Hermione sighed explosively, turning the page with a violence that Draco couldn't have imagined her using with a book. The protest of parchment made him look up in surprise, just in time to see the expression on Hermione's face turn from frustration to wicked delight.

"Does she have a broom?" she asked. The now dim lumos spell lit her face with an eerie orange light, and along with the rather creepy smile she was wearing, Draco found looking at her face a little disquieting.

"Yeah… She doesn't fly often, though."

"Oh… that doesn't much matter," Hermione assured him, her smile growing wider. She passed the book over to Draco and pointed to the left page. "That one."

The first thing that Draco saw was the picture: what appeared to be a witch being pummeled over the head with a broom that had sprouted wings. She wore an expression of pain and embarrassment; around her, a crowd of witches and wizards laughed and pointed mocking fingers.

_Flyer's Fling, _the caption read. _Guaranteed to cause humiliation to even the most proficient of broom fliers, this easy curse actually makes your enemy's broom _sprout wings! _Sit back and watch the fun as the cursed individual first is thrown from their broom and _then _attacked by it!_

"You could offer her a spot on the Quidditch team," Hermione was saying with ill concealed glee. "Making sure you have a backup player of course, and then, when she flies out onto the field before the game, the whole school will see her broom go crazy on her!"

"Hermione," Draco said with a grin. "I could kiss you!"

He was still staring down at the book with a smile on his face and didn't notice her blush. The lumos spell had faded, though, so he might not have seen anyway.

Haha! That was fun. I especially liked thinking up the book titles. Did anyone get the 50 Ways to Curse your ex lover one, or is that just me listening to too much of my parent's music? I know it was a bit short, but the next chapter should be fun to write. And if my writing has gone way downhill since I was twelve, I don't want to know. Okay, yes I do. I think


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